Fares Belkhiria believes everyone should have access to knowledge.<\/p>\n
And, as a strong advocate for the open access movement, the 24-year-old has been doing his part to make that a reality.<\/p>\n
Belkhiria has been using his passion to explore open teaching and learning methods during his master\u2019s studies in the Goodman School of Business.<\/p>\n
For his efforts to promote the concept on campus, the Tunisian graduate student has been awarded the inaugural Brock University OpenCon Scholarship. The honour will be presented as part of Brock\u2019s International Open Access Week<\/a> activities taking place between Monday, Oct. 22 and Friday, Oct. 26.<\/p>\n Open learning involves contributing to and using sources that are free to all users. \u00a0Belkhiria said the process allows for a shift in the way students all over the world are able to learn.<\/p>\n \u201cKnowledge should not cost more than the actual amount needed for its production,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople should not have to experience financial burden to pay for additional unnecessary overhead.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to providing accessible education to all, Belkhiria said the idea of open learning was also directly applicable to the marketing concepts he is studying.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is our obsession to look for ways to improve effectiveness and creativity for teams to remain relevant in changing market conditions,\u201d he said. \u201cFrom the perspective of business, open access materials foster innovation by providing source files that people can continue to improve upon.\u201d<\/p>\n Thanks to the scholarship, Belkhiria will be heading to OpenCon, a three-day conference highlighting open access, open educational resources and open data at York University in Toronto from Nov. 2 to 4.<\/p>\n However, before he travels to the event, Belkhiria will also be taking part in International Open Access Week at Brock. The week\u2019s events include two movie screenings, a webinar and a prize wheel in the James A. Gibson Library.<\/p>\n Belkhiria is particularly excited for the movies, including the Tuesday, Oct. 23 screening of Paywall: The Business of Scholarship,<\/em> a film about the high financial and social costs of scholarly publishing.<\/p>\n